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I kick started the new year holidaying. This time round, it was to the Las Vegas of the East. Tiger Airways had this airfare promotion to Macau @ S$290 including taxes. So one fine day, S called me and asked if we were keen to go to Macau. The next thing i knew, we had booked the tickets within the next hour. Talk about being spontaneous!! I think this is the most spontaneous trip i've ever been to.

On New Year's eve, rather than staying up late and counting down to the new year (as i would every year), I slept early to get enough rest before our 6am flight. K and I woke up at 350am, met EK and S at our void deck, and headed straight to the budget terminal.

We hit Macau around 10am, took a bus from the airport to the ferry terminal, where a 45 minute ferry ride took us to HongKong. From there, we walked to our accomodation for 2 days - Chung King Mansions. When i saw our room, i nearly fainted. It was super small.. as with most houses in HongKong. But i guess i am just not used to it. Our door didn't even have a proper room number plate. There was just a piece of paper stuck to our door with a piece of scotch tape and our room number scribbled on it. And minimal walking space. Just two single beds, and a small bathroom. The bathroom was so small there was no separate space for the shower and toilet bowl. The width of the bathroom was just about the length of my outstretched arms.

Nonetheless, after the first night, i was actually quite impressed with the room. The hot water shower was shiok, and the bed was super comfortable, and the blanket was so warm it didn't feel like it was 14 degrees celcius outside. There was even free internet access.

Our 2 days in Hongkong was pretty much just eating and shopping.. We went to this famous and very traditional tim sum shop house, where we had an adventure squeezing and pushing our way through crowds of people just to get our food. There was no way we could order what we want. Basically, an employee will push out a push cart from the kitchen. Nobody knows what's on the push cart, but everyone just follows the cart with their pieces of paper. When the push cart stops, and the dishes are revealed, everyone just starts to push their pieces of paper to the employee for him / her to stamp on and serve the dish. It was really the fastest fingers first. If you're slow, you will get nothing. Totally screwed up process, but fun. Despite the fact that I got scalded by the hot soup of a dim sum dish when someone pushed me while i was getting out, and i didn't get to eat any of the dim sum dishes i wanted, I still think it was quite an interesting experience!!

Besides dim sum, we also had quite a few street side food. Bought a couple of work blouses on sale from H&M and G2000, and a cute tee-shirt from the famous ladies market. We also went to the must see tourist attraction in Hong Kong : The Peak. Took the tram, had dinner on top of the hill, and took plenty of pictures.. we even saw the moon REALLY upclose ("pimples" and all) through this super powerful telescope. It was an amazing view.. I stared at it for a long long time.. I've never seen the moon so so close before..

On the 3rd day, we took the ferry back to Macau and checked into our hotel for the night. As there was no free shuttle to our hotel (since it was a budget one), we had to take a free shuttle from the ferry terminal to a big casino hotel nearest to our hotel. Unfortunately, EK read the map wrongly the first time, and we took the wrong hotel shuttle. So we had to ride the bus all the way back to the terminal again and take the correct shuttle for the second time. We reached our hotel around 4pm, checked in and headed straight to the borderfor Zhu Hai, China. Our room was pretty decent. Nice big bed, LCD TV, and free internet. The bathroom even comes with a rain shower. Impressive.

We did plenty of shopping in Zhu Hai. I bought a bag and 2 watches, and K bought 2 watches. There was so much more i wanted to see, but we had no time. = (

On our last day, we went to the Venetian to look see and take pictures. Macau is quite a sad place compared to Las Vegas. No life at all, pretty much like a ghost town to me. Then again, i'm not sure if it's due to the recession. Even the casino in Venetian looks empty. Also, i wished we had more time to do some sight seeing.. heard there are a lot of nice churches and architectural buildings in Macau. What a waste. Don't think i will go back there anytime soon though..

Overall, i would say this trip was quite disappointing. I think we tried to squeeze too many places within the short period of time. 3 countries in 4 days!! K also complained that he didn't really get to try the street side food much. And i walked so much i've had a super bad backache for the past 2 days. Worse than those i get during my period!! After this trip, i kinda realize that most trips are about eating and shopping.. What i really love are those trips where i can do more sight seeing of historical buildings or places of architectural wonder. Or do things that provide memorable experiences. So far i seem to only get these in the Western countries..

My Cantonese speaking skills were put to the test during this trip, cause among the 4 of us, only I could speak Cantonese, me being Cantonese and all. Nonetheless, i think i failed terribly.. haha!!

Since i love to watch "Friends" so much, i've decided to try and title my blog entries the same way as the episodes in "Friends"... = P

Yesterday, i dreamt that i was at the beach when a Tsunami hit. I was with my family, my uncles and my grandmother.. I lost my grandmother (and my huge Winnie the Pooh soft toy) in the Tsunami. The rest of us managed to escape, but ended up being chased after by bad guys on motor bikes..

Somehow, we ended up at a small shop and hid there until the policemen came. My dream ended with us realizing that the policemen were also bad guys, and so we had to find a way to avoid going back to the police station with them.

Just came back from my 4 day trip in Penang with 2 couples from the Miata club. Think i gained at least 2 kg now! 4 days of non-stop eating and eating.. Only 30 minutes of exercise at the gym!! But at least i got to know these 2 couples much better, and really felt like i was on holiday!

The ride up took us 10 hours. We woke up at 4am, set off to meet the rest at the Shell station after the Tuas checkpoint. By the time we reached Penang, it was almost 3pm. We did the usual, lots of eating at the hawkers and road side stores. I had too many fried kuay teow, banana pancakes and Penang prawn noodles! Gurney drive was not to be missed.. We also went to the beach at Shangri La hotel. K went for his first jet-ski experience.. and fell into the water because he tried to turn too fast and lost control. I give up on this guy. Drive car also do stunts, jet ski also want to do stunts! = P

Then there was the shopping bit. Bought their local Tau Sa Peah, watched "YES Man" at the cinemas, and also had a foot, shoulder and back massage before the movie. And it was the painful kind. K moaned so much during his massage that everyone in the room (there were 3 of us with 3 masseurs) sniggered.. I got this bulky guy as my masseur, and my massage was so painful i had to ask him to stop at some point. And he can tell me "No pain, no gain!" = ( On the whole, it was quite a good experience. I had a stiff neck for the past 2 days, and the massage kinda cured it. I also liked the fact that we sat in a massage chair during the foot reflexology. I thought it was pretty innovative.

Overall, it was a good trip.. except for the totally lousy service at Traders hotel. If i have time, i will write in to complain. I had 2 very rude Indian ladies attending to me. One over the reception, another over the phone. If there's one thing i can't stand, it's bad customer service.. And we had to park opposite the hotel for 2 nights because the hotel carpark was full! Can you believe it?! Ridiculous..

K and I got into a car accident on Christmas eve, the night before we were supposed to drive our Miata up to Penang for the long weekend together with 2 others from the Miata club. Needless to say, we were not able to drive our Miata, so we ended up being the odd one (car) out.

This is the 3rd car accident we've had this year in our car. It had been raining the whole day. We were on our way home from dinner at my parents' place. K was driving into a huge bend heading towards the expressway along Simei road when he suddenly decided to try and make the car drift.

So he accelerated while turning into the bend. Before we knew it, the car spun out of control and we headed straight into the kerb on the right of the bend. The car stopped after the spin and we realized that we were facing oncoming traffic. Fortunately, we were both not injured. I was just shocked. K kept apologizing to me as he steered the car slowly to the side of the road. I had told him many times before not to do stunts with the car, but he kept arguing that this is the best way to learn how to handle the car during real accidents, and also to test the car's limits. I had kinda given up and knew that something has to happen before he will wake up. I guessed this was his first wake up call.

After we got the car safety by the side of the road, K and I got out of the car and checked on it. Our rear wheels were completely out of alignment, and the rims broken. I also had bruises on my left arm and leg. And a slight pain on my right lower back when i turned at a certain angle. The driver in the car behind us stopped and offered to help. We were fortunate that he had saw us speeding into the bend and had slowed down. Otherwise, there would have been a collision. K got himself busy calling the tow truck, insurance company, the guys we're supposed to go to Penang with etc.. we nearly had to skip the Penang trip. Fortunately, K's parents were out of town so we could borrow their Altis to Penag. K's sister and her boyfriend came down to pass the Altis to us, by the time they arrived, i was in tears.

I was upset at K for two things. One, for not listening to me and always putting his life (and mine!) at risk. And two, i felt he loved the car more than me. When the car spun out and came to a halt, the first thing that came out of my mouth was to ask if he was okay. But he never once asked if I was okay. And this was not the first time. The same thing happened even during the past 2 accidents. This time round, he apologized to me and then started to make all the phone calls without even pausing to ask if i was alright. I knew that K was the type who would assume i am okay unless i tell him otherwise. But somehow, i think my emotions got the better of me. So after he had finished all the phone calls and we were just waiting for the tow truck and his sister to come, i told K how i felt and then broke down. I told him that i needed him to ask, to stop assuming that i am okay unless he sees blood or i faint or something. I told him that i don't want to own this sports car anymore if he keeps putting his life at risk like that. I told him that getting myself into 3 car accidents in a year could jolly well be the reason why i still can't get pregnant.. I kinda just exploded.

K felt really bad after that, especially after i showed him my bruises. He explained to me that i was right, that he was the kind who needed me to tell him if i was hurt. Otherwise he would assume that i was fine. But me on the other hand, i was the kind who needed him to ask. My language of love is "Words of love"!! K said he knew this and that he would try and remember the next time. I guess the accident happened for a purpose. It brought us closer together as a couple.

The tow truck came about 40 minutes later.. and i sat in the tow truck for the first time in my life. At the insurance assessment center, i saw the most number of smashed cars i've ever seen in my life. All parked in one straight line. It's a wonder how some of the drivers managed to survive the car crash!!

By the time we got everything settled, it was already close to midnight. We had to wake up 4 hours later to set off for our Penang trip. And because the following day was a public holiday, we would only be able to report the accident on Monday when we come back from Penang. What a way to celebrate Christmas!

I had requested for a new luggage tag, cause my old one was damaged by the stupid airline on the baggage belt.

What surprised me was i had been upgraded to Elite Gold! For some reason, i was happy. Not that it was any use to me, cause i would have to fly more often in order to maintain the Gold tier. Otherwise, it will just drop back to Silver again..

22nd Dec Monday marked the 106th month that K and I got together.It's also the last monthniverssary for the year 2008.Because my laptop was under repair and won't be ready till after lunch. I did not go to the office in the morning. Instead, K and I went to run some errands, and then drove to the airport to deliver some signages to SATS. While i was there, caught up with some of my ex-colleagues and passed them Christmas cards and gifts. For lunch, K and I went to Bedok Interchange for my favourite dark sauce carrot cake, and some pretty good wanton noodles.. We went shopping after lunch and K bought me this pair of diamond earrings. I had been bugging him for some time for a pair of diamond earrings for Christmas so.. = )

I went back to office after lunch.. but did not get my laptop until 4pm. By then, i didn't have much time to clear my work, as i had an appointment with Bust Station at 7pm. Supposed to go for a free trial (to enhance my boobs )that i won after i entered into a contest.Anyways.. the whole Bust Enhancement trial was actually not bad. I had thought it would be crap and then plenty of hard selling. But this Bust Station is actually quite good. Could really see and feel some difference after the trial. I am proud to say i did not sign up for anything, despite the really attractive offer they presented.. = )After my short bust enhancement trial session, i met K for some Fish and Co. at the Glass House.. my first time there.. always wanted to go there casuse i thought the glass house looked very nice.. We ordered our fave seafood platter for 2. The service there was really bad. Bunch of school kids on holiday jobs. Slow, not much energy and motivation.. wonder what makes the kids tick nowadays?!

I had my Christmas party at home over the weekend..This year is the second time we're having a Christmas party at our place with the usual gang. And as usual, we all dressed in green and red.I decked the living room and kitchen with some decorations to create some festive cheer. K also downloaded a few Christmas albums to play throughout the night, and i borrowed TABOO from Carol for some fun after the feast.

It was potluck, and all of us prepared something for the feast.. I tried my hand at making the tofu that i learned during my Taipei cooking class, but ended up being not very popular. In fact, it became the food for forfeit for the losing team in TABOO!! = (

Macaroon Christmas tree

Baked potato, tofu, sushi, pork knuckles, spaghetti

Ice-cream log cake from Goodwood Park

It was a great party.. good food, great company, and we laughed until our sides ached playing TABOO.. It's amazing how we can guess some of the words based on the clues our friends gave.. = ) Brion is one hellava player. For the word "3D", he said: "What is before 4 and after C?" And "Valentine's Day", his clue was: "What is one day one month after January the 13th?" Best!!Our friends from the Hundred Acre Woods were not left out either. They were the stars of the evening after S got her present during the gift exchange: 4 baby soft toys of Winnie and friends. So now we have 2 sets!

For the gift exchange, we were supposed to give something of $20 value.. We had picked our receipient a week earlier, and nobody knew who their "Santa" was. Mine was S, and she bought me a nice silver necklace with a dolphin and a cute cup with a lid. B was K's Santa, and as usual, he did not follow the $20 rule and got K a Hugo Boss shirt. He also got me a pink Longchamp coin purse to match my handbag. = ) Actually, i also did not follow the rule. I got a Victorinox mini multi-purpose tool for everyone. Each tool had a different horoscope engraved on it and came in different colors. I have a Libran one and it has served me very well over the past few years! I hope they liked theirs!

We had another round of feasting the day after, mostly to clear the left over food. Played mahjong and watched "The Curse of the Golden Flower" by Gong Li and Chow Yuen Fatt. Very nice show.. boob fest for the guys! = )

Last Thursday, after my laptop was used at the Christmas Party at Jewel Box, the hard disk crashed. I had to work on somebody else's desktop the whole of Friday and only got my laptop back on Monday afternoon. This was the second time the hard disk crashed over the past one year!! Fortunately for me, all the documents were recovered. But my Taipei photos were mostly gone! I'm still bugging my IT department to retrieve the photos for me... = )

Then over the weekend, my most loyal Philips hair straightener died on me. I could not straighten my hair for 2 days and had to tie it up until today after K bought a new one for me yesterday. Apparently, the model i had was discontinued and only selected Best Denki outlets carried the stock.

On Friday morning, one day after our department's Christmas party, i came to office and saw these on my table. One was from Xinlei: a home-baked cupcake with the letter "A" as icing on it. The other was from Emily: Bottle of Clinique moisturizer to thank me for helping out with the decorations for the Christmas party. So sweet.. <3

Yesterday was our department's annual Christmas party. This year, we had the party at the ballroom at Jewel Box on Mount Faber. I was put in charge of decorating the function room. Was supposed to meet the rest of the guys at the office then take the cable car over together. But i woke up late so had to ask K to drive me straight up to Mount Faber.

Fortunately, when i reached, i was the first one. About 5 mins later, the rest arrived. It was not easy putting up the decorations.. it took us 1.5 hours before the room looked amazing. Even the staff at Mount Faber was impressed.. I got quite a few compliments too... = )

The party was great fun. We had table games such as Guess the Baby photos, using gum to blow bubbles and build Santa Claus etc. All of which i thought were very innovative. I took part in this game where my partner was supposed to stand directly behind me, blind folded, and feed me with 3 things: a banana, a sausage bun with lots of tomato sauce, and a packet of Chrysanthemum tea.. the first team to finish eating all these 3 wins. of course, i didn't win cause my mouth wasn't big enough compared to some of the guys who took part. = ) but it was great fun!

I also received a very nice present from Edwin for the gift exchange. It was a Marks & Spencer collection of 5 tubes of different scent shower gel. Travel size. Perfect for me to bring to my Hongkong trip end of this year!!

I just realized that i haven't been blogging for more than a week now.. the past week has been quite busy for me.

Wanted to write while i was in Taipei, but i couldn't really use my laptop during the meeting, and the wireless did not work in my hotel room. Besides, i went to the night market every night and got myself so exhausted that i just wanted to go straight to bed.

My virgin trip to Taipei was pretty interesting.. watched 2 movies on the plane (to and back): Ghost Town and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Both were actually very nice, quite unexpected.

On the business side, i got to know the Asia Pacific SOS folks much better. We were supposed to share during the ice-breaking session some secrets that nobody in the room knew.. it was supposed to build trust among the team. So i told them 3 secrets: 1. I was top in Literature for my O Levels, 2. I appeared on newspaper and television before, and 3. I had a tattoo. During this session , i found out that one of the team members had plastic surgery on her ankle because she wanted to run faster. Interesting!! I thought at first it was on her boobs cause she seemed more well endowed these days.. haha!! The team also shared on some of the projects and work they were currently working on, as well as came up with a motto and slogan for the team.

On the leisure side, i boosted the Taiwan economy quite a bit. I bought my Christmas present for Emily for the Christmas party. Bought some local produce such as sour plum, flowers for tea, clothes, face masks, plenty of their local fruits for my mom in law, and of course ate a lot!! Then at the airport, bought plenty of their local Mochi for loved ones..

I also tried their smelly beancurd for the first time. It was a "Mouth-opener"! I could smell it like a hundred metres away. And it actually tasted worse than it smelled. My Japanese and Thai colleagues thought it was the funkiest thing they've ate.. Their expressions were priceless!! We also tried the famous oyster mee sua also at the street side stalls. And of course, their famous deep fried chicken cutlet. In fact, i had chicken cutlet thrice. Once at Shih Lin street. Super delicious!

And of course, the reputed Taipei 101. One of my colleagues keep refering to it as Beijing 101, and when she told the driver "Beijing 101", he got confused! = ) We had dinner on the 85th floor on the 2nd night. Apparently, the highest one can go is the 91st floor for 400 Taiwenese Yuan. We thought 85th and 91st floor wouldn't make much of a difference so we didn't pay to go up to the 91st. The view was so-so.. pretty much like Equinox view if you ask me. Oh, and i thought the 101 didn't look very fantastic in the daytime. The top part and the rest of the building looked mis-matched in terms of colors.

On the last night, we went to Din Tai Feng for dinner. It was my suggestion, cause i wanted to try the authetic Din Tai Feng and see how it compares to the one in Singapore. The xiao long bao was heavenly.. My Japanese colleague made me laughed so hard when he ate the xiao long bao by poking it with a fork!! The soup inside the dumpling all seeped out before he could eat it! = )

Our team building activity was a cooking class at a local Taiwanese's home. It was called Jodie's Kitchen. We learnt the basic ingredients of Taiwanese cooking, some tips on nutrition, then had our hand at kneading the dough for some home made green onion pancake. We also learnt how to make Taiwanese dishes such as hot and spicy Sze Chuan sauce. I was amazed at how something as simple as beancurd with vinegar and garlic can taste so amazing! Will make some for my Christmas party tomorrow.

Overall a good trip.. although i would have preferred to have had more time for shopping!! = )

Caught the movie today with K at The Cathay Picturehouse... As usual, had free tickets so we used the money we saved and spent it on popcorn (and parking) instead..

I didn't really like the movie.. wasn't interesting enough to keep my attention. Kept fidgeting throughout the movie.

Nonetheless, i was pretty amused by how DiCarprio looked in this show. So different from the lead character in Titanic, which i remember him most fondly for. In this show, DiCarprio looks completely screwed up either as an American CIA agent posing as an Arab, or just as an American CIA agentwho is accident prone and thus often seen with bruises, stitches on his face and blue black eyes.Totally not charming at all.. = )

When it comes to shows with terrorist-related plots, i still think "24" is the best!

I was home early last night.. had to rush to the AMEX counter at Tangs Plaza to pay my credit card bill by 530pm, otherwise i would get charged for late payment. At least that was what the customer service person told me over the phone. Which i thought was very silly, because the bill had stated the "Date Due" as 9th Dec 08. I had called AMEX to ask some questions on the amount i had to pay, and the girl on the phone had informed me that i need to pay at the AMEX counter at Tangs by 530pm. Any other form of payment (internet banking, AXS machine) would be considered as late payment because they needed at least 2-3 working days to process the payment. And only the AMEX at Tangs would work. If that's the case, then they shouldn't put the due date as 9 Dec right?? Cause from a consumer's point of view, as long as i pay the bill on the 9th Dec, then i am not late! It all boils down to the definition of the words "Due Date" printed on the credit card statement.

Today, i received an email reminder from Citibank informing me that my credit card bill was due in 10 days. Then i realized that i had not received my statement. Apparently, they had gone online, and i don't even remember being asked if i wanted to view my monthly statement online. So then i went online, and had to search through my files to find the stupid pin number for internet banking. But it didn't work cause my PIN expired or did not match with my card number or something. So then I called Citibank, and asked them to send the physical statement instead.

When one bank is trying to save trees by going online, another bank is trying to kill the trees by sending too many statements to their customers. 2 weeks ago, i received a statement from HSBC. There was no due date on the statement, so i called the bank to enquire. That was when i found out that HSBC sends reminder credit card statements to their customers about a week before they send the actual statement. I asked to be removed from their mailing list for the reminder statement, but was told i could not exercise that option. So i will keep getting 2 credit statements for my HSBC credit card. How dumb..

I've been having loads of fun recently buying new Christmas decorations to add to my past year's collections..

Yesterday night, i was home early so i decided to deck my living hall with boughs of holly and plenty more..

So i took out my big bag of Christmas ornaments from the store room and went to work!

Here's my ultra-modern looking Christmas tree which i have been re-using for the past 2 years (a gift from my mother in law).. I have been asking for an artificial pine tree for the past 2 weeks, but K refused to let me buy one.. = (

The red ornaments hanging on the tree are actually Santa ornaments from Las Vegas given to me by a colleague. At the two sides of the tree are a reindeer and a mini Christmas tree - gifts from B when he went to Japan last year..

The hallway with red and green tinsel and a little mistletoe hanging in the middle.. whoever's caught standing underneath with somebody else would have to kiss! I'm having a hard time keeping the tinsel stuck to the wall, stupid thing keeps falling off!

My big empty white wall in the living room. I bought two big red socks today to add more color to this wall.. = )

How can i forget my folks from the Hundred Acre Woods? Bought them each a Santa hat to wear, although none of the hats fit their big heads.. Don't they look so adorable?? Eeyore seems happier in this picture.. = )

I met up with B on Saturday morning to engage in most Singporeans' favourite past time: Queuing up for a sale.. = )

This time round, it's the Fossil sale at Suntec convention center. Up to 80% off time pieces and accessories. I didn't buy anything in the end, but let's just say it's one of the worst sales i've been to. Much worse than the Crocs sale at Singapore Expo..

When we reached the convention room 30 minutes before the doors open, there was already a snaking queue. Which was expected. Except that we didn't realize the people at Fossil were so stingy that they booked a really small room with a really small queueing area.

It was so bad we couldn't even find the end of the queue and had to walk around the sea of people just to find the end of the queue. It took us about 40 mins to get in.. and then the squeezing and pushing began.

The watches were tied to cardboard egg trays with cable ties, and placed on the tables. So only the people at the first row could see the watches. Those at the back (like myself) just had to hope and pray people in front will leave soon, and then squeeze our way to the front. Problem was, there were a lot of inconsiderate people at the front row who just take their own sweet time looking at the watches, staying rooted to the ground..

So there i was, being sandwiched and pushed around.. when this couple came along and stood behind me on the last row. The guy came so close i could feel his crotch pushing against my back.. The problem was, there was nobody behind him! So i got irritated, turned back and said to him: "Excuse me, could you please move back a little, i don't feel too comfortable." His girlfriend pulled him away from me after that..

That was not all. When i finally squeezed my way to the front row, the Fossil staff was already totally pissed off that people kept pushing the tables. So this lady shouted: "Can you all please move back and stop pushing the tables?!" and without warning, gave the table a hard push. Before i could react or move, the wheels on the table had run over my right foot. I was wearing my Crocs mary janes then, so the wheels went over the top of my naked foot. I almost died. But since i couldn't really move anyway, i decided to continue browsing through the cardboard egg trays.

After an hour of madness, B and I decided to stop shopping and proceed to the cashier. The process was like this: If you see a watch you like, the staff will issue you a sales memo, then you go and make payment, and then join another queue to collect your purchase after payment. B bought an Armani watch (at 80% discount) so we went through the whole process. So we had to queue again to pay.

Then after paying, we exited the room and realized the queue to collect the watch was super long. I met my friend from university while queuing to collect B's watch. She had collected hers, and told me that the wait took 2 hours. Mainly because a lot of watches were missing and the staff had problems finding them. By then, i was hungry and pissed off at the inefficient people at the collection counter, and the people who had organized this sale. To me, the entire process was bogus. How can there be 3 seperate queues just to buy one stupid watch??

The worse thing was, the notice in the room said goods sold were not refundable. My friend kinda reinforced that fact when i asked her if we could get a refund and get the hell out of here. So B and I were stuck in the queue for the next 2 hours because we have already paid. 50 mins into the queue, and i was starting to get pissed off. I was hungry, and the stupid girl behind me was so fidgety she kept"carressing" me (with her hand, her hair, her bag etc..).

By then, K had been waiting for us for the past 30 mins to have lunch. So when i told him the collection will take another 2 hours, he told me he would head home.. I was actually quite sad, cause i wanted to meet K, but couldn't bear to leave B alone in the queue, even though i didn't buy anything myself. So i asked K to go home while I waited with B, cause i knew B would do the same for me. Then K suggested that i go to the front of the queue and check what's happening. Which I did.

There were like 10 people at the collection counter, but all moving extremely slowly.. it was as if they don't care there was a 2 hour queue waiting outside. I walked down the queue near the counter and began asking a few people how long they waited to come this far. The answers were like: "Very long!!" or "about 2 hours". So i walked back to B and told him the bad news. B was already super guilty by then. = )

As the saying goes, desperate times calls for desperate measures. So i had to think fast. One of the Fossil staff walked past me and i grabbed her and asked her to help me get a refund. She asked me to follow her and referred me to her supervisor at the collection counter, who was looking flustered from all the mess. So I put on my sweetest smile and voice and asked her in the most polite way to help me get a refund for B's watch. I told her I had to rush off to somewhere and simply could not afford to wait for the next 2 hours for the watch. And Viola! Ask and you shall receive. = )

Because of me, we did not have to waste another 2 hours queuing for a stupid watch. In the end, we got to meet K for lunch, and we had porridge buffet at Joaquim.. = )

Don't think i will be going for another sale anytime soon.. felt like i had been queuing the entire day on Saturday.. totally claustrophobic!!

Yesterday was the annual Standard chartered marathon.. K and I were on our way to a wedding lunch and we drove past the runners.. actually i should call them walkers.. cause ALL of them were walking!! Not sure if these are the 21km or 42km people.. but they sure looked exhausted!

We participated in the 10km run 2 years ago.. how time flies. K says he want to go for the 21km next year.. we shall see ! = )

Our wedding lunch was at Fullerton Hotel. Seems like wedding lunches are becoming the "in" thing nowadays. This wedding we attended was for one of our friends in the MX-5 car club, and his Thai wife. Prior to their wedding, we had been playing a few sessions of badminton with this couple, so i guess that was the reason that got us invited. Cause we were the only ones from the car club in his guest list. So it was one of those weddings where we knew nobody at our table, and had to keep each other company throughout, hoping that neither of us had to go to the washroom or make a phone call during the meal. = P

Nonetheless, i thought it was a good wedding. The groom was so emotional that he cried during the solemnization while he was saying his vows, and then again during his wedding speech.. Such a sweet guy. Made ME tear too during the solemnization! There were a few unique things which i thought made the wedding one of the more memorable ones:

* The wedding was held on the same day as the Stand Chart run, when all roads leading to the hotel were closed until 12pm. the solemnization was at 1130am. We were late but fortunately, did not miss much.

* Location of the solemnization was at the roof top garden of Fullerton Hotel: First that i've been to..

* The groom cried - TWICE!

* There were 3 emcees during the wedding lunch speaking in 3 different langugages: English, Mandarin and Thai

* The couple hired a pretty good Irish guy to play some love songs on his guitar and harmonica throughout the lunch

* The Maid-of-honor and Best man gave speeches (usually it's just the married couple)

* The couple did a slow dance in the ballroom (very Westernized..)

* One of the flower stands along the aisle nearly caught fire (one leaf was lighted up but the fire was put out almost immediately) !!

This couple nearly had to cancel their wedding because of the closure of the Bangkok airport. They didn't know if their relatives were able to attend, and they almost couldn't collect the bride's wedding gown in time cause the gown was in Bangkok! Talk about a memorable wedding !